Calls for new fire station in city to be fast-tracked

Cork City Council has agreed to fast-track plans for a new fire station, which will be strategically located between Ballincollig and Bishopstown to improve emergency response times in the area.

The motion, put forward by Labour Party Cllr Ciara O’Connor at a recent Cork City Council meeting, also calls for the former Ballincollig Fire Station to reopen temporarily until the new facility is built. City Hall has requested that funding for both projects be identified and prioritised to ensure work begins as soon as possible.

“A new fire station in the south-west ward is badly needed — and the sooner things happen, the better,” said Sinn Féin Cllr Joe Lynch.

“There was a very serious house fire in Ballincollig not so long ago. One issue that jumped out at me from that fire was the maintenance of fire hydrants across the city. One of them was faulty.

“I engaged with the Director of Services and then with Irish Water — only to discover that there is no programme of maintenance for fire hydrants citywide. It is very worrying that there is no proactive maintenance programme in place.”

“It’s a real emergency issue to get a fire service in the south-west of the city. The recent fire in Ballincollig was really detrimental to a family, and I just think we really need to progress now — identify a site soon, apply for funding, and get this done as soon as possible,” highlighted Cllr O’Connor.

Cork City Council’s Director of Emergency Management & Climate Action David Joyce said: “I understand Cllr O’Connor’s sense of urgency around the southwest fire station, and any fire is a tragedy — for that family in particular, the family in Ballincollig. I can confirm, Cork City Fire Service responded to that fire in 10 minutes. From the second we got that notification, we were on site in 10 minutes,” he said. According to the latest National Oversight & Audit Commission (NOAC) report, Cork is “the number one fire service in the country for getting out of the fire station immediately and getting to the fire itself on site”.

Independent Ireland Cllr Noel O’Flynn highlighted that there are 5,500 fire hydrants in the old part of the city, not including newer areas. “We used to have a register of all the fire hydrants that weren’t working. I don’t know how many of the 5,500 are still operational,” he said.

Mr Joyce explained there are two separate issues regarding hydrants — operational response maintenance and preventative maintenance. “If the fire service comes across an issue, they report it to Irish Water, and they resolve it. For planned preventative maintenance, Irish Water has told several councillors over recent months that they are putting in place a national scheme to carry out a full preventative and investigative repair service for all hydrants,” he added.

When Cork’s boundary extension occurred, City Hall carried out a strategic review of the fire service. Its key findings were used to produce the Fire Cover Report, which was presented to councillors earlier this year. Work is now underway on the operational plan, which will be presented to the council in the first half of next year.

Cllr Lynch said he is “not making a charge”, but has requested a report outlining the council’s role, responsibilities, and whether it is in breach of the Fire Services Act.

Cork City Council Chief Executive Valerie O’Sullivan responded that they “are very happy to come back with a report” and said: “Of all the services we deliver and manage, fire is the one where we can be sure we’re not in breach of any Act.”

This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.